{"id":777020024,"date":"2024-10-21T09:31:24","date_gmt":"2024-10-21T12:31:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777020024"},"modified":"2026-04-22T05:00:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T08:00:13","slug":"tourism-in-macau-mgto-to-investigate-claims-of-casino-entry-fee-for-tourists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/tourism-in-macau-mgto-to-investigate-claims-of-casino-entry-fee-for-tourists","title":{"rendered":"Tourism in Macau: MGTO to investigate claims of casino entry fee for tourists"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A social media post had claimed that the Venetian Macao was charging an entry fee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Macau.-\u00a0<strong>Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes<\/strong>, the director of Macau\u2019s Government Tourism Office (MGTO),\u00a0has announced the launch of an investigation into claims on Chinese social media that casinos were charging an entry fee for tourists. Macau Business claims to have seen a post on Xiaohongshu that said the Venician Macao was charging MOP200 (US$25) to enter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fernandes appears to suggest that travel agencies may have been spreading misinformation and warned that the MGTO may issue fines or even withdraw licences if that&#8217;s the case. She said penalties would be also imposed if unauthorised tour guides were found to be involved. She urged travellers to avoid low-budget tours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A Legislative Assembly committee is examining proposed legislation against &#8220;zero-cost&#8221; tours, which often rely on tourists making purchases to generate commissions. Operators could face fines ranging from MOP50,000 (US$6,218) to MOP70,000 under the proposed law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Macau received 25.94 million tourists in the first nine months of the year. That\u2019s a rise of 30.2 per cent year-on-year and a rebound to 85.9 per cent of the pre-Covid volume in 2019. The city has a target of <a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/macau-chief-executive-expects-over-30-million-visitors-this-year\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">30 million tourists<\/a> in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>See also: <\/strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/tourism-in-macau-over-70000-discounted-flight-tickets-booked-in-q2\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Over 70,000 discounted flight tickets booked in Q2<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A social media post had claimed that the Venetian Macao was charging an entry fee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":18522,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Macau's Government Tourism Office (MGTO) has launched an investigation into claims of casinos, specifically The Venetian Macao, charging entry fees, with the director suggesting misinformation from travel agencies or unauthorized guides. The MGTO warns of potential fines and license withdrawals for non-compliance, coinciding with legislative efforts against 'zero-cost' tours. This regulatory scrutiny occurs amidst a significant rebound in Macau's tourism sector, nearing pre-pandemic volumes.","focusai_entities":"Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, Macau\u2019s Government Tourism Office (MGTO), Macau Business, Xiaohongshu, The Venetian Macao, Legislative Assembly","focusai_location":"Macau","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.9), investor_analyst (0.8), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"MGTO Enforcement Scope","query":"What specific governance frameworks will MGTO leverage to enforce penalties against non-compliant travel agencies or tour operators, and what is the precedent for license revocation in such cases?"},{"label":"\"Zero-Cost\" Tour Impact","query":"How might the proposed legislation against \"zero-cost\" tours impact the GGR and NGR projections for Macau's integrated resorts, considering their reliance on diverse tourism segments?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16338,439],"tags":[23906],"class_list":["post-777020024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-asia-news","category-legal-news","tag-macau-casinos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777020024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777020024"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777020024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777020030,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777020024\/revisions\/777020030"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777020024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777020024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777020024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}